Top 6 Ways to Stay Productive as an Entrepreneur

Corporate life places mandatory lifestyle constraints on individuals to enhance productivity, but once these are removed, the importance for self-management has never been more important. Telecommuting has been increasing since the birth of the Internet and is still an exploding market. Therefore, you are far from alone by seeking to work out of a home office or shared working space that you may call your own. If you are already working from home, you may realize the disadvantages and tradeoffs in productivity from an office environment.

Our article is designed to communicate the top six ways to help you stay productive while telecommuting, or working as an entrepreneur. Our business plan consultants have surveyed over 1,000 people working from home that are either self-employed or telecommuters to ask them what they did to stay productive. Our results found that the overwhelming response was to have a routine that they remained focused on, a schedule that shaped their workday performance. Additional responses give insight into how you and your team can be more productive while telecommuting.

Receive Adequate Sleep

The cliché of receiving more sleep is well recognized by millions of Americans. However, it does not mean that those same Americans follow it. Recent research has shown that a lack of sleep can now increase the risk or Alzheimer’s disease, which will impact the long-term performance of your company. The marginal productivity from just a few more hours of sleep will be immediately recognized in the performance of your work. Not only will you be more focused, but you will have more energy and produce higher quality deliverables

Have a Dedicated Schedule

Have you ever found yourself taking an extended lunch break by reviewing one too many e-mails? Without a schedule that will keep you focused, you will easily get distracted during the day by unimportant activities. A dedicated schedule will improve your productivity by reducing multi-tasking and keeping you focused on more value added tasks. Trivialities are often worth more in terms for the time investment, than the actual sacrifice by simply avoiding them.

Manage you Meals

It was once said that poor people have big televisions and wealthy people have large libraries. Research indicates that poor people can be said to have poor diets and wealthy people said to receive rich nutrients. It is not only about eating healthier, it is about receiving the proper balance of nutrients and the time of day where your body functions with the most energy. Starting your day with a doughnut may save you twenty minutes if you miss the morning train, but could cost you three hours of lost productivity

Exercise Regularly

Regular exercise will help you be more aware during the day as it increases the blood flow to your brain. It will also release endorphins early in the morning, which will keep you in a more positive frame of mind during the day. This positive energy will impact others and create a more productive and optimistic aura around you. We included this because we often find that entrepreneurs complain of the gym taking too much time to visit. However, even an hour of early morning cardio can generate a return on investment of 1,000%.

Take Breaks

It may seem at this point that what we have actually done is provided you a serious of distractions from your core focus. While this is not our intention, they may in fact reduce the amount of time that you spend on other activities. However, taking a break will help you to think more clearly and address issues more confidently. It will also keep you less stressed so that you can endure your work load for a longer period of time.

Design your Environment

One of the greatest advantages for telecommuting is the ability for workers to create their own environment that they work best in. Placing all employees in a uniform work environment is no different than the public education system treating the student Einstein the same as the lower performing children. This suppresses not only your own talent, but also those around you. Design an environment that you work best in, not necessarily most comfortably. IF you enjoy working from home, because it is easier to do the chores, you are probably in an unproductive environment. However, if you get your best ideas when you are in the solitude of your own abode, then it may be much more productive than a fancy downtown office.